BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 5. Despite the human sufferings of our people we proposed peace to Armenia, President Ilham Aliyev said addressing the First Azerbaijan National Urban Forum in Aghdam city, Trend reports.
"We made a proposal soon after the second Karabakh war ended. Despite all what you see in Aghdam and what anyone can see in the territory of more than 10.000 square kms totally destroyed by Armenians, despite the human sufferings of our people we proposed peace to Armenia. We announced publicly five basic principles of international law which should be the basis for peace agreement, particularly mutual recognition of territorial integrity of countries, refrain from territorial claims in the future, refrain from use of force or threat of use of force, delimitation of state border and opening of communications. All this are actually the basic principles of international law, and I think peace agreements or any kind of agreement between countries which trying to normalize their relations must be based on that. With respect to Armenian population who still lives in Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, are our citizens and we are not going to discuss how we go now organize their life on our territory with any international player. Karabakh is Azerbaijan. The Second Karabakh War proved it on the ground. During the times of occupation no country in the world, including Armenia recognized this artificial structure. Therefore, issues related to our internal affairs we never discuss with international institutions or with any country regardless the size and potential of that country. We have certain optimism with respect to the peace process, because just recently several days ago the meeting of foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia, first meeting of that kind, particularly with agenda of preparation of draft of peace agreement. We hope that it will not take long time. We know the tactics which Armenians usually use when they don’t want to come to an agreement like negotiations on Karabakh conflict for 28 years. If that continues then we will have no peace. If this is a choice of Armenia that means that they will make another serious mistake. They underestimated us, they underestimated our will, the will of people of Azerbaijan, the potential of Azerbaijan. They had to pay the price for that. The war which happened two years ago, was conducted on the territory of Azerbaijan. So, this once again proves our position and demonstrates that despite that, despite the suffering of more than a million of our countrymen, we want to put an end to hostility, mutual hatred, and we want to open a new page of peace. Whether we will succeed or not, we will see. I am not sure but at least we are moving in that direction," the head of state said.